Reading Rainbow - Cover the Sky
Went to see Reading Rainbow and Los Campesinos play at Union Transfer in Philadelphia last night; first concert I've been to since Free Energy last spring. Union Transfer is a relatively new venue, or at least new for R5 Productions (responsible for most of the interesting shows in the city), and it's a wonderful space--about as big as the Electric Factory, and similarly appointed, with an upstairs balcony and bars both up- and downstairs, but a lot more comfortable and just more welcoming altogether.I'd only heard one song from Reading Rainbow before, the supremely pretty "Always On My Mind," which gave me the impression they were a Mates of State-type band, maybe a little more inclined towards weirdness. That song, it turns out, is not exactly representative of the band's live sound, which involves more squalls of noise than gentle cooing. The band (which is a trio) reminds me a little of Calla (in concert at least), especially in their tendency to start a song gently, slowly, and then let things take their course into extended territories of flashing, violent beauty. Apparently, they played a lot of new songs for the first time, and it sounds like whatever they've got in the pipeline is really good.[Buy Reading Rainbow's music]
Los Campesinos - By Your Hand
One thing among the many things that I love about this band is the fact that their songs sound instantly familiar without really recalling anything else. "By Your Hand," for example, feels like a classic already, though it's hard to pinpoint why...the energy of this band is apparent always, and I think a lot of that has to do with Gareth's singing, the way he rides the words so carefully and effectively bends syllables to his will, something that's even more emphatically on display in concert. Gareth not only sings like his life depended on it, but he also mimes his lyrics with elaborate (and pretty awesome) hand gestures, though his default pose recalled something more like a poet declaiming his verses. I think most people know that this band is really good, but it's sort of incredible how well they execute their songs live (particularly the ones that sound like they must have 100 constituent instrumental parts) and how charming and humble they are on stage.p.s. (title of this post comes from Gareth's introduction of "You! Me! Dancing!," which has served as the soundtrack to a long-running Budweiser commercial)[Buy Hello Sadness]